St. Francis Of Assisi

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 3

St. Francis Of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi. By Elizabeth Goudge. Duckworth. 303 pp. Miss Goudge has made a halt in her career as a writer of popular novels. Her reconstruction of the life of Christ, “God So Loved the World,” is now followed by a study of one of the greatest) of the saints. St. Franc iso fAssisi has never ceased to appeal to the imagination. He nas been the subject of learned works, as might be expected; but many novels have also been written about his life and times. His personality is so vivid that it has survived the passing of centuries; and is as attractive today as it was five hundred years ago. Miss Goudge’s aim is modest; she hopes “to introduce Saint Francis to a few who do not know him well and perhaps make them want to know him better.” But though she claims little, she will be found to have dope a good deal more She is an accomplished writer and knows how to present a good story in a fascinating light. With her sense of artistic and religious values, she is able to describe that blending of austerity and joy which seemed to be characteristic of all the saint’s actions, and in such chapters as the third and fifth—“the Crucifix” and “My God and My All”—there is real spiritual discernment. This may be a popular work, but it is not sentimental. Miss Goudge shows the difficulties that inevitably followed those acts of “Christ—like compassion which were the expression of Francis’ renewed nature.” It is the saint’s unquestioning devotion to God and the service to His creatures in this world that particularly shine forth from these pages. As she writes on page 214, “It was typical of him that he never thought he had done enough.” After reading Miss Goudge’s book, the reader is constrained to agree with Williston Walker, who wrote many years ago now, “In Francis of Assisi is to be seen not merely the greatest of mediaeval saints, but one, who through his absolute sincerity of desire to imitate Christ in all things humanly possible, belongs to all ages and to the church universal.” FOR YOUNG READERS THE REBEL OF THE FENS, by Frank Carpenter and Kevin Barry, (Max Parrish 160 pp.) is a story about Herewar ’ the Wake, that rebel Saxon who is said to have defied the Normans in the Fen country and whose hideout was the Isle of Ely. There are several highspots in the book but it is not well written ?nd the plot becomes muddled and confused; also the story does not come to life. Hereward the Wake is a traditional character whose identity is now regarded as problematical and this should have been mentioned in a book which purports to be a historical novel. CLEVER HANDS, a book of Arts and Crafts for boys and girls by Richard Slade (Faber, 62 pp.), covers a wide range of interests for children who like doing things with their hands. The contents include pattern-making, simple weaving, plaster casting, pepier mache work, making glove puppets. printing photographs, making books, modelling with wire, using oil colours and a final word of advice on the work bench. Mr Slade's directions are straightforward and simple and are very clearly set out. At the end of each chapter, he gives a summary of the appropriate method. Praise of this excellent book need only be qualified by the hope that the improved art teaching in our schools over the past generation may lead to a more imaginative use of oils than the one Mr Slade presents here. John Watts' superb photography greatly enhances a work which should be of much use in the school room.

HIDEAWAY JOHNNY, by David Scott Daniell <Brockhampton Press, 120 pp.), is an entertaining story about the Napoleonic War period. A penniless and romantically minded author in the London of 1810 inadvertently takes the King’s shilling. This unhappy event is disturbing only to his young son, Johnny, who is left in the streets to look after himself and is robbed of all his pocket-money by an urchin. Driven by hunger to steal some food, he is observed and in the hue and cry that follows takes refuge in a large mansion. Here he makes friends with the heir of the house and together they unmask a couple of dangerous French spies. Father comes back into the story as an “intelligent private soldier” and both he and his son are awarded commissions in the army by the parent of the lordly young companion, the powerful Earl of Geddington. All’s well that ends well.